Social media provides a way to overhear the conversation your customers are having about your business, whether they’re offering praise or criticism. Tracking your brand mentions lets you know how your products are being received in the market, and give you the chance to keep one customer’s negative experience from influencing others’ opinions. Be tactful in your follow-up to keep someone's bad experience from getting even worse.

Get Notified

Sign up to receive notifications for when your brand is mentioned on social media. Numerous programs offer this capability, and many offer free options for basic services and pay options that provide more robust coverage and information. Select one that works for your business needs and your budget. Some programs also offer automated searches on keywords related to your brand, while others allow you to schedule content updates and make it easier for multiple users to manage a single account. Also consider programs like Google Analytics, which tell you how customers arrive on your tracked websites, and can even alert you to a post that's causing multiple users to examine your Facebook presence or the "Contact Us" section of your homepage.

Who's In Charge?

The usual method for tracking and following up on brand messages on social media is to have an individual or team dedicated to that purpose, rather than having employees handle it on an ad hoc basis. Have a general structure in place that allows these workers to send basic messages or make settlement offers without seeking ownership approval. For example, if a restaurant customer complains about poor service on Twitter, a social media manager might be able to offer a coupon for a free entrée as a good-faith gesture.

Respond in Kind

When responding to social media messages, take your cue from the method the customer used and respond in similar fashion. If a customer posts something positive about you on Facebook, don’t respond by looking up his phone number and calling him in an effort to secure more business. If a customer tweets something negative at you, don’t respond on the customer's Facebook wall. Treat initial contacts less as a sales opportunity and more as an opportunity for customer engagement, and answer your customers with the same tool they’ve shown they’re comfortable in engaging with.

The Need for Speed

If customers complain about your brand on social media, odds are that they have a problem that they want to have addressed right then. There’s a big difference between responding right away and being able to solve the problem, or delaying to the point where the negative message has been repeated by others and you’re limited to damage control. Social media monitoring isn't a 9-to-5 job; a complaint about a poor experience at 5:30 p.m. can go viral if it's not viewed until the following morning. Respond quickly when your monitoring system alerts you that a negative comment has been posted to let the complainer know that his concerns are being taken seriously.

Level of Effort

Depending on your social media presence and the engagement of your customers, you may find yourself mentioned a lot on social media. Responding to every tweet with a personalized message can be time-consuming, particularly on a medium like Twitter that limits the characters you have to work with. A simple “Thanks for the feedback” or something similar can acknowledge that you’re paying attention, and be sufficient to respond to most mentions. This allows your social media team to focus more of their energies on customers with a problem to be solved, or key influencers that require special attention.